Hi everyone…am I missing something?
I thought Sonos doesn’t support high res?
Yes Sonos support’s 24 bit audio at 48k and has done since S2 was released.
It doesn’t do MQA second unfolding though, but Roon does the first unfold so that is fine.
2 Likes
Beat me to it
2 Likes
ah…dont know why…but in my mind it’s still Sonos = max CD bitrate and sample rate.
Cool…thanks guys!
I am pretty new to the Roon world 
Welcome to the world of Roon.
When you have Roon doing the first unfold you’ll see this in the signal path.
2 Likes
I would generally say that Sonos is at it’s best at CD quality as I do not think it sounds any better at 24/48 and takes more bandwidth which makes the older devices skip more, especially if you turn off compression.
I have all my device’s limited to 16/44 in Roon device settings
1 Like
And if you have a pair of Fives, you can use an external DAC via the 3.5mm aux on one of them.
Then you may get better SQ and the signal path will look similar to this
1 Like
ah cool. I have an arc, sub and 2 fives setup in my living room as tv setup.
maybe for my other room I will try it out. Thanks for the suggestion
Nice set up. I’m working towards that once my extension is complete.
How do you find the soundstage on that for music?
I have never liked the music from a soundbar when trying to sit down and enjoy music listening, but films can be amazing.
well…I usually or normally use the setup for my tv. So Dolby, Atmos, that kind of stuff. That one is fine…no cables running through the room, wife appreciates that
For music it’s ok…it’s more of a casual “something running in the background”. I have set it up to full surround mode when running music, so the fives in the rear are working too. That’s actually not toooo bad.
If I really want to listen to music, I have an ifi pro idsd signature with hd820 attached to my Mac.
Ok thanks that makes more sense (to me at least) 
As the analog input of the Fives gets resampled to digital (with the original limitations) and finally back to analog once more, if any – SQ will deteriorate.
2 Likes
Agreed in part. The multiple DADAC process does sound different from Sonos Streaming via Roon.
Is this no different than feeding say a pair of Kef LS50 Wireless for example, with a source via the Aux inputs. I appreciate they’re more for analogue sources than digital.
I do occasionally, depending on sample rate find the sound more punchier via an external DAC and with my hearing (at the age of 42) being below par do like it. However, I prefer a simpler set up and my Fives sound good to me at volumes averaging 65-68dB.
Not to Sonos it can’t it just passes through as native flac.
1 Like
You not getting any MQA decoding it just authentication nothing more the stream to Sonos will be 48/24 as per source
You’re correct
MQA is only authenticated for Sonos Streaming
The DADAC process from resamples in the end to a max 24/48
I understood that it had to do the first stage then pass it on as a FLAC feed to the Sonos devices.
If I am wrong about that, what does it do, just ignore that MQA information completely?
I was under the same impression as you. It’s authenticated at least from my first screenshot earlier, but correct by @CrystalGipsy there’s no core decode as per my second screenshot.
MQA hasn’t been the top of my agenda, but now I see it’s no benefit at all with Sonos Streaming
Unless the track is MQA 48kHz as I’m sure I’ve seen core decode before.
1 Like
Yes I do not do anything with MQA either, reduced my Tidal sub to 16/44
I am hoping to sign up for a year of Qobuz sublime in the new year, but keep reding about issues with people losing the ability to play the songs in their library.
Challenges challenges 